The China Lake is first used in S.O.G. when on the Jeep, clearing out entrenched Vietcong. It is also seen in the mission Crash Site when in the crashed plane fuselage, with Bowman questioning why the Russians would be using American weapons.

Unlocked at level 48. The China Lake has a 2 round capacity, and is pump-action. The pumping action is very slow, thus lowering the rate of fire as compared to a pump action shotgun.

The China Lake does 155-25 damage with a 7.5M blast radius. It drops about 17 damage per every meter meaning the lethal blast radius is about 3M as the damage would have dropped to 104.

With Scavenger, the starting ammo is doubled from 2 to 4 grenades.

When Pack-A-Punched this gun is called the "China Beach." It is very effective for clearing out large waves but disorients the user after firing too close. Overall it is a poor choice for close-quarters combat. The China Beach holds five grenades and cycles faster. The China Lake is also available as a power up in Dead Ops Arcade where it seems to be Automatic but it is pump action as you can see the character model pumping the weapon before firing. In Dead Ops the China Lake only goes a small distance before exploding which allows zombies to get close if your not aiming the right direction. The China Lake, in Dead Ops, is effective in when firing into a large masses of zombies and on lower waves.